HANCOCK COUNTY — One of the county’s schools is requiring students and staff to wear masks as COVID-19 cases climb there.
The obligation is prompted by an update to the school corporation’s health and safety plan, which continues to change amid the rapidly fluctuating landscape of the pandemic.
Mt. Vernon Middle School had 12 COVID-19 cases among students and staff as of last Friday, placing it in the orange tier of the district’s health and safety plan — the second most severe and one in which masks are required. In elementary schools, the threshold is seven students/staff who are COVID-positive in an individual building, and for the high school it’s 14.
Mt. Vernon’s school board added COVID-positive totals per building as triggers to the tiered color system Monday night. The entire plan is available at mvcsc.k12.in.us/mc/2.
An absentee rate of 16% due to combined illness of students and staff in an individual building would also trigger the orange tier. Because masks are being worn, close contacts are traced to three feet rather than six. The orange tier also calls for deep cleaning and daily fogging.
Once a school advances to a higher level, it will remain there for a minimum of five days and until its number of current cases drops below the threshold that triggered the tier. Those who test positive for COVID-19 must isolate for 10 days.
Mt. Vernon Middle School is one tier under red, which does not rely on COVID-positive totals per building to be triggered, but rather an absentee rate of 20% due to combined illness of students and staff in an individual building. In that tier, the school corporation would consult with the Hancock County Health Department on possibly closing a school.
Also as of Friday, McCordsville Elementary School had two cases, placing it in the blue tier, the second least severe; the high school had three, keeping it green, the least severe; and there were two cases in the “other” category, meaning district-level employees not designated to a particular building.
From the district’s 19 cases as of last Friday, there were 437 close contacts, all but 63 of whom have had to quarantine.
Chris Smedley, Mt. Vernon assistant superintendent, said at the school board meeting Monday night that the corporation was working through several cases that came in over the weekend, which totaled between 12 and 14, putting the district’s total at over 30.
Smedley noted that of the over 400 close contacts, three have recently tested positive for COVID-19 themselves. Mt. Vernon had 304 COVID-positive individuals during the 2020-21 school year, he continued, adding none of their close contacts were known to become infected. He attributed this year’s change to a more aggressive strain of the novel coronavirus.
“Due to this new experience brought on by the delta variant, we have to do something different,” Smedley said.
Shannon Walls, a school board member, said the corporation has a comprehensive plan in place and that she appreciates all of the work that went into putting it together.
“The last thing we want is for any of our students to fall behind,” Walls said. “We want them in school, we want them safe, we want them healthy.”
She called for unity in the wake of the video from the board’s last meeting going viral, illustrating a division the pandemic is creating across the country.
“You don’t have to agree with the person sitting next to you,” Walls said. “You don’t have to agree with any of us. But as a world we’re divided right now, and we had 4 million eyes on us last week. We have an opportunity to walk out of this boardroom tonight united. We don’t have to agree, but we have to move forward. We have to show our children what that looks like, and I hope that this community can do that after tonight’s decisions.”
When Mt. Vernon’s updated plan is applied to its COVID-19 data from the last school year, its three elementary schools neared the orange threshold for requiring masks, but never reached it. The middle school reached that threshold for one 10-day period. The high school did on three occasions throughout the school year, including two seven-day periods and an 11-day period.
Board members also learned more about the support schools are providing students at home due to illness or quarantine, including assignments and materials being provided within 48 hours, and having direct and indirect instruction provided virtually by teachers and staff.
The meeting drew comments from several attendees, including Sam Harper, who thanked the board for letting scientific consensus guide its health and safety protocols. However, the stepfather of a Fortville Elementary School student said he’s concerned the corporation lacks a consistent and comprehensive remote learning plan for kids who are quarantined, particularly younger students.
“I firmly believe that all the teachers themselves are doing the absolute best they can, and I appreciate them for everything they do, because this is just an untenable situation we find ourselves in,” Harper said. “However, our students, especially in elementary school levels, need guidance. They need someone to walk them through it. If we have what sounds like almost an entire elementary school class being sent home, there’s no reason virtual school can’t be done in lieu of physical school.”
Dr. Dan Stock, the McCordsville resident and Noblesville functional medicine physician whose criticism of federal and state COVID-19 guidelines before the school board earlier this month went viral, spoke as well. He said while the school corporation is compelled by law to require masking in certain situations like on buses and following shortened quarantines, officials don’t have to require face coverings in their health and safety plan as outlined in the orange tier.
“No one’s asked you to do a misdemeanor or get yourself put in jail or anything like that, but it does appear that the majority of people in this school district do not want a mask policy that has any kinds of things that put masks back on people, unless it is mandated by a government authority higher than yourselves,” Stock said.
The Indiana Department of Health updated COVID-19 numbers at schools across the state on Monday with figures through last Friday. All but four of Hancock County’s public schools reported at least fewer than five new cases among students, teachers or staff, with Greenfield Intermediate School adding the most, at nine students.
Hancock County added a COVID-19 death to its total on Tuesday — a woman in her 50s who died on Aug. 16, according to information from the state health department. The county also added 51 cases on Tuesday, its highest single case day since January.
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COVID-19 data through early Tuesday, Aug. 17
Hancock County
- 371 new tests (July 30-Aug. 16)
- 51 new cases (Aug. 16)
- 6.6% seven-day (Aug. 4-10) positivity rate all tests, 8.6% cumulative rate
- 1 new death (Aug. 16)
- 124,959 total tests administered
- 9,212 total cases
- 10.5% seven-day (Aug. 4-10) positivity rate unique individuals, 19.1% cumulative rate
- 153 total deaths
- 39,621 age 12+ fully vaccinated (59.6% of that population)
Indiana
- 28,307 new tests administered (April 17, 2020-Aug. 16, 2021), 7,048 new individuals tested
- 2,726 new cases (Aug. 16)
- 10.4% seven-day (Aug. 4-10) positivity rate all tests, 8.4% cumulative rate
- 29 new deaths (Aug. 13-16)
- 11,669,757 total tests administered
- 3,765,487 total individuals tested
- 806,094 total cases
- 19.6% seven-day (Aug. 4-10) positivity rate unique individuals, 21.4% cumulative rate
- 13,743 total deaths
- 430 total probable deaths
- 53.4% ICU beds in use – non-COVID
- 18% ICU beds in use – COVID
- 28.6% ICU beds available
- 19.7% ventilators in use – non-COVID
- 5.8% ventilators in use – COVID
- 74.5% ventilators available
- Hospital census: 1,517 total COVID-19 patients (1,262 confirmed, 255 under investigation)
- Delta variant: 82.6% of samples in August
- Not variant of concern: 14.8% of samples in August
- Gamma variant: 1.4% of samples in August
- Alpha variant: 1.1% of samples in August
- 104 total confirmed cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children
- 3,019,608 age 12+ fully vaccinated (51.5% of that population)
- 6,740 breakthrough cases (0.225% of fully vaccinated individuals)
- 226 breakthrough hospitalizations (0.008% of fully vaccinated individuals)
- 78 breakthrough deaths (0.003% of fully vaccinated individuals)
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